Retired after an honored career in the Marine Corps, Robert E. (Bull) Trometter took a high school job.

Trometter could employ a figurative steel fist while upholding the meaning of semper fidelis (always faithful, always loyal) as head coach at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot in 1947-48, at Camp Pendleton in 1949, and at MCRD from 1953-59, but Trometter also would need a velvet glove at University of San Diego High.

The man used both, with aplomb.

Trometter took over the second year school with no tradition and less-than-adequate facilities in 1960 and went to playoffs, finishing 3-4.  He was 4-3 in 1961, then 5-2-1, and 6-2-1 in succeeding seasons.

Year 5 started badly against the strongest schedule in school history.

The Linda Vista school dropped a 19-13, opening game to Lincoln and then was run off the field in a 39-0 rout by Morse.

“If you’re going to play football, you might as well play good teams,” Trometter told Harlon Bartlett of the Evening Tribune.  “I don’t know how much harm or good it’s done; it remains to be seen.”

DONS LEARN HARD WAY

Trometter then got to the meat of his message.  “I know one thing, this is the first time a team has quit on me.

“I don’t think my kids know how to tackle.  We started knocking heads yesterday and we’ll keep at it all week until I find out who wants to play.  If we’ve got enough players left, we’ll play.  If not, we’ll forfeit.”

Uni lost its next game, 14-12, to Madison, then won its last seven, including a 40-0 destruction of Carlsbad in the Class A finals.

Trometter explained the Dons’ success after an Avocado League-clinching, 34-0 win over Vista. “We put in a boom series,” said Trometter.  “The Boom Series is when you block people.”

Trometter also begged off a trip to the showers from his exulting players.  “I have only one suit,” he pleaded.

Uni’s success would have an impact in the future.  The Dons would move from Class A to AA in 1965.  Trometter coached through the 1970 season, with a career record of 63-37-2.

EARTH TO EASTERN LEAGUE: WE’RE WAITING

How difficult is this?

About  60 teams annually make the San Diego Section playoffs in the 21st century, selected and seeded efficiently (if not agreeably) almost as soon  as the final whistle is heard in the regular season.

Granted, computers ensure a fast, handy set of brackets.

But go back to this year  and to a cantankerous Eastern League as it tried to determine one playoff spot out of a field of two.

That’s two, as in this shouldn’t be difficult.

San Diego and Lincoln tied for first place in the Eastern League, each with a 4-1 record.  Lincoln lost to Crawford, 25-7, while San Diego defeated Crawford, 21-19.

However, Lincoln  edged San Diego, 14-12.

Solution seems fairly simple.

Lincoln won the head-to-head, so it was the logical choice.

But the Hornets’ playoff selection wasn’t made until the next evening, 24 hours after a 13-0 victory over St. Augustine had clinched a share with San Diego of Lincoln’s first title since it began playing in 1954.

DIVINE INTERVENTION

By comparison, the Grossmont League resolved its playoff question less than two hours after Helix and Granite Hills came to the finish line with 4-1-1 records and in a tie for first.

Bob Divine, Monte Vista’s vice principal and retired Helix basketball coach, conducted a telephonic poll among the six other league representatives and got the issue settled in Helix’ favor.

But the Eastern League was slow to respond.

No reason was given for the delay, but that circuit long had a quasi-fratricidal history, dating to 1950, when city schools broke from the Coast League and formed the City Prep.

There was no love lost.

News accounts seemed more attuned to the quick and professional response by the Grossmont group.

AA BRACKET IS 4  TEAMS

Lincoln eventually would be aligned in the AA  first (semifinals) round against Kearny, the Western League champion and defending San Diego Section titlist.

Helix got Castle Park, a second-year Metropolitan League school that had improved from 1-7-1 to 6-2-1.

San Diego High was unhappy, believing it was the league’s strongest entry.

The Cavemen closed strongly with 4 straight wins and their 7-2 record was the best since 1959.

San Diego suggested that open voting in lieu of a telephonic poll would eliminate politics and perceived bias.

SLATER WEIGHS IN

Kearny coach Birt Slater got involved.

“I’m unhappy with the whole situation,” said Slater.  “You’d think there’d be a better way to run an election.  I called fifteen people Sunday morning and couldn’t find anyone who knew anything.”

Slater was miffed because he had summoned assistant coaches to his residence in Lemon Grove to plot a game plan.

Instead, the Kearny staff was forced to game plan for two teams, said Slater, wasting valuable time.

“Most of the schools were represented at the Lincoln-Saints game; they could have voted then,” the Kearny coach scoffed.  The head coach, however, sprung for the cold cuts, chips, and sodas.

A parting shot by Slater and echoed by most interested others was why would the CIF have a first round pairing of city versus city and county versus county?  Why not the other way around?

The CIF generally was tone deaf to anything other than the establishment of rules and the prosecution of violations.

IMPROVES ON ’63 MARK

Kearny (11-0) actually improved on the 10-1 record of the powerful 1963 club, defeating Castle Park, 34-19 in the finals and extending its winning streak to 21 games.

Kearny returned just 2 starters, all-Western League lineman Dan Fulkerson, end Frank Oberreuter, and only seven lettermen.

“I knew this would be a good team some day, but at the start of the season I thought it was a year away,” said Slater.

KOMETS RUN AND RUN

The Komets thrived on a rushing attack that was unrelenting and varied.

Fullback Jim Townsend (he became known as Jamie Townsend in college at San Jose State) had 801 yards, averaged 6.7 yards, and scored 80 points.

Junior Bobby Johnson, leadoff man on the Komets’ 880-yard relay team that ran 1:27.5 in the 1964 state meet, averaged 7.2 yards for 102 carries and scored 50 points.

The apple of Slater’s eye was junior quarterback Billy Bolden, who averaged 5.1 yards for 99 attempts and had a 52 per cent completion average and 738 yards passing. Bolden’s emergence was such that he was  San Diego Section player of the year.

Lincoln had no chance, bowing 26-7, as Townsend rushed for 89 yards in 18 carries, Johnson 70 in 14, and Bolden 39 in 8 as all three scored touchdowns before a crowd of 7,000 in Balboa Stadium.

Kearny was outgained, 316-298, and outdowned, 19-11, by Castle Park,  but Bolden and Johnson scored 5 touchdowns between them and the Komets raced to leads of 20-6, 26-12, and 34-13.

CASTLE WHO?

Johnson, scoring on runs of 83 and 51 yards, and Bolden accounted for all but 66 of Kearny’s total yardage.

Second-year Castle Park was the most surprising team in the County, riding out of the South Bay on the passing arm of 5-foot, 7-inch junior Billy Miller, who was intercepted three times by Kearny but was a tough and fearless leader of the emerging Trojans.

The Trojans made their intentions known early in a 27-0 victory over Chula Vista in a game that was Castle’s gain and the Spartans’ loss in more ways than one.

Art Gawf,  6-foot, 3-inch, 190-pound halfback,  pierced Chula Vista for 172 yards in 37 carries and scored one touchdown.  “I went to Chula as a sophomore,” said Gawf.  “I wanted this game more than any I’ve ever played.”

HIGHLANDERS LAID LOW

Castle Park shocked Helix, 26-20, in the first round as Miller threw for touchdowns of 71, 45, 37, and 52 yards after winning the Metropolitan League in a showdown with Sweetwater before an overflow crowd of 5,000 at the Red Devils’ Hudgins Field.

Three points after touchdown were the difference in the Trojans’ 21-19 victory at Sweetwater.  The winning conversions came on a seven-yard halfback pass from Doug Grace to Art Gawf after a penalty, on a Gawf plunge, and on an another pass, Grace to Tommy Bullis.

Grace also passed for 25 yards and a touchdown to Gawf.

SLOUGH’S JOURNEY

Point Loma manfully battled Kearny to a 13-13 tie entering the fourth quarter, despite losing its best player, fullback Greg Slough, controversially ejected for fighting in the first half.

Two Kearny touchdowns, the last a 38-yard scramble by Bolden with 34 seconds left, delivered a 26-13 victory.

This was not the last heard from Slough.

After playing at San Diego City College, Slough enlisted in the Army and did battle in Viet Nam, then returned to school, started at linebacker at USC and was drafted in the sixth round in 1971 by the Oakland Raiders of the NFL.

Slough left football after a third season with the L.A. Rams and one with the World Football League Hawaiians.

DISCRETION TRUMPS VALOR

San Miguel School coach Mervin Houston declined a small schools playoff bid against Carlsbad after the Knights had posted a 6-3 record that included a 12-7 win over a Mountain Empire team that qualified for the Southern Section small schools playoffs.

“We are just too small to compete with Carlsbad,” said Houston, who also cited a litany of bumps and bruises to his squad of 15 players. “We could probably stay with Carlsbad for 10 minutes.

BREITBARD FORMAT CHANGES

The 16^th annual College Prep All-star game now featured San Diego City vs. San Diego County.

From 1949-55, the game matched Southern California all-stars versus all-Los Angeles City. The contest was all-Los Angeles vs. all-San Diego from 1956-63.

Before the game, which the City won, 20-0 before 11,218 persons in Aztec Bowl, a moment of silence was observed for F.W. (Bill) Whitney, the executive director of the sponsoring Breitbard Athletic Foundation since its inception in 1946.

Whitney, who served as game managing director since 1949, passed three weeks before this year’s game.

The San Diego businessman, who was a volunteer foundation employee (he received a token payment of  $100 a month), also served for many years as San Diego’s only voting representative on the Helms Athletic Foundation all-Southern California selection committee.

The Southern California squad had a record of 5-2 against the L.A. City entries.  All-Los Angeles held a 5-3 edge on all-San Diego.

FOOTHILLS FAVORITES

Olander was a big name for a decade in the East County foothills.

Grossmont’s Roger Olander was one of the leading pole vaulters in the nation in 1958,  with a career best of 13 feet, 5 ¾ inches, before the revolution of technology in the pole vault.

Rick Olander cleared 14 feet, 7 inches, 10 years later at Helix.

In between Roger and Rick was Byron, who set records at Helix with a :09.6 100-yard dash and :21.4 220 in 1965.

Byron also was a standout on  coach Warren Vinton’s 6-2-1 football Highlanders, who were  surprised in the playoff semifinals, 26-20, by Castle Park.

Olander scored 12 touchdowns, had a 10-yard rushing average and was the most dangerous open-field runner in the County.

CLAIREMONT’S DON STEPS DOWN

Don Henson, 25-37-6 in six seasons at Kearny and Clairemont, stepped down as head coach.

“I guess the nervousness and tension caught up with me,” said Henson, a former University of Arizona player who was an assistant at Hoover, 1953-55, head coach at Kearny, 1956-58, and started the Clairemont program in 1959.

The Chieftains were 6-4 in Henson’s only winning season in 1962, led by the Western League’s player of the year, Bill Casey, who quarterbacked the Chiefs into the San Diego Section finals before they bowed to Escondido, 28-14.

WILD FINISH

Madison players rushed the field after Brandt Crocker’s 20-yard field goal with six seconds seemingly clinched a 3-0 victory over San Diego.

But the Warhawks then  unconventionally tried an onside kick and San Diego took over on  its 40-yard line with time for one play.

Quarterback Michael Marrs dropped back to pass, but was cornered.  Marr pitched to halfback Dennis Maley, who drilled a spiral downfield to Alex Dantzler.

Dantzler had two blockers in front of him when he caught the ball, but one  was an ineligible receiver.  Penalty, game over.

RED DEVILS’ LEGACY

Sweetwater’s Jim Finnerty  jogged the memories of longtime National Citians.

Finnerty’s father, Ralph, was a standout athlete and member of  the 1930 Sweetwater squad. Jim’s twin uncles, Lyle and Leon, starred on the 6-1-1 team of 1934 and Lyle was the County’s leading scorer with 73 points.

Jim more than honored the Finnerty name.  He set a school record with his 15th touchdown pass and was a standout in basketball and baseball.

TRUE GRID

El Cajon Valley won the Grossmont League junior varsity title with a 20-19 win over Helix in the final game…the loss snapped a Highlanders JV winning streak at 47 games…Crawford sophomore Bob Petretta ran 20 yards for a touchdown on his first career carry…Coronado improved its all-time series record to 26-16-4 with a 41-20 victory over Escondido and snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Cougars, dating to 1955…the Islanders first played Escondido in 1914….Hoover and Kearny had to move their season opener to Hoover from Westgate Park, because the baseball Padres were in the Pacific Coast League playoffs…Mountain Empire’s 6-1 regular season record was the best in school history, but the Redskins made an early exit from the Southern Section small schools playoffs, ushered out by Lake Arrowhead Rim of the World, 48-12….

Things perked up from 1-7 to 3-6 at Mission Bay, where coach Gerry Spitler outlined a play for Rick Tauber, Craig Sisson, and George Davis (from left).

John J. Montgomery High’s football history does not require an encyclopedic tome.

A few pages would be more than enough.

Most of those pages would be devoted to the 1982 season.  Coach John DeVore’s Aztecs posted a 9-2 record, the best in their history and one of the few winning seasons since the  Otay Mesa school opened in 1970.

Poets and rhapsodic observers might be moved to exclaim that Montgomery’s success under DeVore not only was rare, it was kismet.

The DeVore name resonates in the South Bay region.  John followed a path similar to that of Chet DeVore, his legendary father, who is remembered for football success at Chula Vista and for a long and respected tenure in administration.

When he retired in 2010, John DeVore had been principal at Sweetwater Union district schools Southwest and Olympian and had posted the best record ever for a Montgomery coach.

DeVore was the third head coach in Montgomery history.  His won-loss record of 49-35-5 from 1976-83 has not been approached.  Julio Alcala’s 35-47-1 is next.

MONTY’S YEAR?

Big enough, fast enough, and fairly deep, Montgomery was 6-0 in nonleague games and went to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in Mesa League play with a dramatic, 20-17 victory over visiting Castle Park.

Behind for the first time all year, the Aztecs had the ball on the 16-yard line of Castle Park and trailed, 17-13.  Quarterback Bernardo Vasquez scrambled and hit Joe Clifton for the winning score with a minute left in the game.

Clifton was the fourth or fifth receiver on Vasquez’ progression list.  Star wideout Art Ramsey was roughed up out of bounds at the end of the first quarter, then was ejected for retaliating.

SWEETWATER PREVAILED

Victory over the traditionally difficult Trojans was a formidable achievement, but not enough. Old nemesis Sweetwater won the league championship the following week by defeating the Aztecs, 20-6.

Montgomery didn’t give in to James Primus, the County’s leading rusher, who scored 6 touchdowns and rushed for 305 yards in his previous game.

The bigger Red Devils came at their lighter opponents with repeated student body power sweeps, but Primus had to work, rushing 29 times for a hard-earned 115 yards and one touchdown as Sweetwater broke a 6-6 tie in the fourth quarter.

Montgomery’s season ended when Morse, another rugged squad, took a 13-12 decision in the first round of the San Diego Section AAA playoffs.

Misfortune struck the Aztecs on the second half kickoff when Darryl Rosette ran 90 yards for a touchdown and a 13-6 Morse lead after Montgomery had outplayed the Tigers throughout the first half.

PRACTICE NOT PERFECT

The Aztecs practiced kicking away from the dangerous Rosette all week, and then unintentionally kicked to him.

Monty struck back with a 14-play, 69-yard touchdown drive but a two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful and a bad snap from center aborted a late field goal attempt that could have the won the game.

“Most teams didn’t throw,” said DeVore, who played quarterback in high school at Hilltop.  “We had a good quarterback, a good offensive line and really strong wideouts.

“Beating Castle Park before a sold out stadium was a real high point.  I think the difference between us and Sweetwater is that Sweetwater had been in that type of game and we hadn’t.”

JOHN J. WHO?

Montgomery High is named after a Northern California aviator who became airborne two decades before the Wright brothers.  Montgomery piloted a glider from a hill on Otay Mesa in 1883, near where the school campus sits today.

As there were no independent observers of Montgomery’s flight some aeronautical historians doubted the feat. It was not recognized until 1894.

According to historian Donald Harrison, aviation pioneers conducted their tests in great secrecy in order to be the first to bring their inventions to the patent office, so only relatives claimed to be witnesses to Montgomery’s 600-foot flight in a flying machine with curved wings.

Montgomery was killed in 1911 in a crash of another glider and is buried near San Francisco.

Several schools here and the Montgomery airport on San Diego’s Kearny Mesa honor his name. The wing of a World War II era plane stands upright on the hill in Otay Mesa, where John J. was said to have taken flight.

WRITER CALLS TIME

Visiting San Pasqual and Torrey Pines were earnestly going at it early in the season’s opening game.  A late arrival was The San Diego Union reporter Steve Brand, who looked at the scoreboard and noted that 12 minutes, 30 seconds remained in the first quarter.

As the Evening Tribune’s Bud Maloney explained, “In the tenor of ‘What’s going on here?'” Brand quizzed colleagues on the field, who hadn’t noticed.

Brand continued to pose the question as he watched the teams play a 15-minute quarter, okay for college and pro games but 3 minutes more than for high school.

The scoreboard clock lined up at 15:00 when the second quarter started.

Brand couldn’t stand it any longer.

COACH SURPRISED

The veteran scribe made his way into into the Torrey Pines bench area, seeking out Falcons coach Ed Burke.

Brand, voice rising:  “Are the high schools playing fifteen-minute quarters now?”

Burke, puzzled by Brand’s presence and by what the coach considered a peculiar question:  “Ah, no, we still play twelve minutes.” Brand:  “Well, you’ve just played a fifteen-minute quarter and it looks like you’re going to play another.”

Burke blinked as he looked at the scoreboard clock, then hailed the closest official and pointed to the scoreboard. Arm-waving and more pointing continued as other officials and San Pasqual coach Bob Woodhouse joined the conversation.

IRRIGATION SYSTEM PART OF PLAY

The game timekeeper was summoned and an official conference was called. There was discussion about a nine-minute second quarter but agreement was finally reached on the regulation 12 minutes for the last three quarters.

As if on cue, water sprinklers came on just before halftime, adding to a comedic scene.

Fortunately the teams were at the other end of the field and a valve was shut off before the contest had to be stopped.

San Pasqual won the 51-minute game, 21-16. One of  the longest regular-season, non-overtime high school contests in San Diego history.  Quarters were 15 minutes for many years decades earlier.

NEW CENTURIONS AND OTHERS

University City High, which opened in 1981, played a varsity schedule for the first time.  Mission Bay High played games on a home field for the first time since the school opened in 1953.  New lights were in at Fallbrook and “not quite” in at Southwest.

Sixty-four light banks, at $315 each, were needed to illuminate the field at Fallbrook.  Twenty-thousand dollars was raised as the money was collected in shares of $315 each.

JUST FINE, THANK YOU!

The question was posed to Helix coach Jim Arnaiz:  “What’s life like without Jim Plum, Allan Durden, Karl Dorrell, and Dan Hammerschmidt?”

Helix answered with an opening, 30-6 win over Patrick Henry and rolled to a 12-1 record, and topped Mt. Carmel, 10-6, in the 3-A championship at Southwestern College.

The Highlanders weren’t rebuilding but reloading.

Arnaiz’ big four led Helix to a combined 29-4-1 record in the last three seasons, but Scott Webb, who replaced Plum at quarterback; running back Steve Webster, receiver Tony Necoechea, and defenders Chuck Cecil, Deron Webb, among others, stepped up.

Cecil, also a dangerous kick returner, transferred in the previous winter from the Central Section’s Hanford in the San Joaquin Valley.  Cecil’s hard-hitting reputation followed him to the University of Arizona and into the NFL, where he played and coached.

SCOTS’ SCOTT

Scott Webb’s point after and field goal were the difference as the Highlanders won their 51^st game (against 7 losses and a tie) in the last five seasons, defeating Mt. Carmel, in San Diego Stadium.

Webb stepped in at quarterback this season after sitting behind Jim Plum since Scott was a freshman and directed the Scots to a dozen wins, many of which positioned by his solid leadership and by his kicking leg.

Webb scored 3 touchdowns, 41 points after, and 12 field goals for 95 points, fourth in the San Diego Section. He set a Section record with 5 field goals (plus two extra points for a record 17) in a 29-0 victory over Granite Hills.  Webb’s career totals included 120 points after and 29 field goals.

NOT DECLAWED DESPITE RECORD

Coach Dick Haines’s Vista Panthers were only 4-6 but they scored one of the biggest victories in program history, knocking off the state’s third-ranked team, Huntington Beach Edison, 6-0, in Week 2.

A crowd of 8,000 at Vista watched as Scott Black kicked 47- and 43-yard field goals in a span of 49 seconds in the second quarter to end the Chargers’ 36-game, regular-season winning streak.

Five of Vista’s six losses were to teams with a combined record of only 24-29-2, but the Panthers also defeated Morse, a 8-4 playoff semifinalist, 23-14. They lost to 2-A champion El Camino,12-0, and 3-A finalist Mt. Carmel, 27-10.

FLAT FINALE

When regulation play ended and Point Loma and El Camino were tied, 6-6, in the 2-A championship, the 6,000 fans in attendance at Mt. Carmel High expected an overtime session and let their displeasure be known when CIF commissioner Kendall (Spider) Webb declared the teams co-champions.

Playoff rounds through the semifinals have overtimes because one team has to advance.  Fans were expecting a tie-breaker, although no provision had been made for one. It was the second championship tie in the 23 seasons of the CIF San Diego Section.  Escondido and San Diego deadlocked at 21 in 1969.

WIN ONE FOR THE BENNIE

His coaching career at Point Loma was in season number 28 and Bennie Edens said he’d never witnessed anything like the Pointers’ big Western League win over Clairemont.

“I told the kids at halftime that whether we won or lost I was prouder of them than any team I’ve ever coached,” said the Bennie.  “I’ve never seen anything like it, being hit like we were and then coming back to win.”

Clairemont scored on the first two plays it possessed the ball, Chris Hardy running 71 and 49 yards for touchdowns.  The Pointers fought back, going 58, 76, and 58 yards for a 19-13 halftime lead. The lead switched twice more before Clairemont etched a tie at 27 with eight minutes left in the game.

After Eric Allen ran 67 yards to the Chieftains’ 9, Point Loma’s David Rod kicked a 25-yard field goal. Rod’s kick gave the Pointers a final, 30-27 advantage as the teams, apparently spent, did not score in the final 7:06.

CAVERS LEGEND FEELS PAIN

One week after the crushing loss to Point Loma, Clairemont took out its disappointment on San Diego, 76-6, prompting a call from writer Steve Brand to retired Cavers coach Duane Maley.

The Cavers were 97-19-2 under Maley from 1948-59 but their program had not been the same since.

“It’s incredible that it could happen to a school with such a rich history,” said Maley.  “I believe the type of athlete attending Sn Diego High has changed.  It’s sad the program has slipped to that level.”

Maley did not point a finger.  “I know (Clairemont coach) Steve Miner and he purposely wouldn’t run the score up on anyone.  He’s a fine young man.”

The widest margin of victory for a Maley-coached team at was in a 59-0 victory over La Jolla in 1958.

“It’s foreign for a coach to tell his players not to play hard,  to tell a fourth stringer to ease up,” said Maley.  “We tried to let everyone play when the game started to get out hand, and we had more players then.”

POINTERS, SUNDEVILS, AND NFL

Probably 300 to 400 San Diego-area preps have landed on active rosters in the NFL or other pro football leagues, beginning with San Diego’s Brick Muller with the 1926 Los Angeles Buccaneers and Russ Saunders with the Green Bay Packers in 1931.

Few have surpassed the career of Eric Allen, a standout on Bennie Edens’ 11-0-1 Pointers and  a second-round draft choice out of Arizona State, the 30^th player selected in the 1988 NFL draft by Philadelphia.

Allen played 14 seasons for three teams, is in the all-time top 15 with 54  pass interceptions, with eight touchdown returns; earned 6 Pro Bowl berths, and played in 214 of a possible 217 games.

TRUE GRID

The 3-A championship was played in the afternoon at Southwestern College…high rent costs forced the 3-A and 2-A  games out of San Diego Jack Murphy…El Camino coach Herb Meyer called his team the “Dirty Thirty”…the Wildcats never dressed out more than 30 players and sometimes less…a week after resigning at the end of the season  to spend more time with his family, Patrick Henry coach Dale Twombley was replaced by longtime assistant Walt Baranski…Baranski was a Hoover graduate, class of 1957;  Twombley was Hoover, ’63…Edens on  the 2-A tie:  “I would have loved to win and of course Herb feels the same way, but perhaps a tie is fitting; we had a great game between two great teams”…Meyer:  “A tie is what we deserved, as bad as we played”…Edens was the Section’s senior coach, followed by Meyer (24 seasons), La Jolla’s Gene Edwards (23), and Vista’s Dick Haines (13)…Point Loma went undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 1939…Ronnie Lewis was successful on Morse’s first field goal attempt since 1977, a 26-yarder in the 10-6 win over Madison…Monte Vista standout Herb Duncan showed some of the moves that reminded Chargers fans of his dad, the great punt returner and defensive back Leslie (Speedy) Duncan…Morse and Serra played in the second annual Friendship Bowl and were the only city schools playing 10 regular-season games…Bennie Edens of Point Loma and John Shacklett of Morse started the series in 1981…Morse topped Serra, 20-7….

..

Coach Hobbs Adams was in his office a couple years before, finishing some paper work

during the quiet of the Christmas vacation break.

A strapping youngster walked into the school’s recently constructed gymnasium and found Adams at his desk.

The visitor told Adams he was from Texas and wanted to play football at San Diego High.

Adams was curious.

The coach and the boy spoke for almost an hour.

At length Adams convinced the young man that he should return home to his parents.

Adams went so far as to helping purchase a train ticket that would take the youngster north to Los Angeles and then east.

The train stopped in Santa Ana.  The youth got no further.

Earle (Tex) Harris made another visit, to coach Gerald (Tex) Oliver at Santa Ana High, enrolled in school, and became an all-Coast League end in 1931.

Adams related the moment to Charles Byrne of The San Diego Union as the Cavemen were getting ready for their annual battle with the Saints.

Word had reached Adams that Harris had been declared ineligible at Santa Ana through enforcement of the “nine-semester” rule.

Harris, it was learned, had played football three years before at a Texas military school.  He had attended high school for at least eight semesters, exhausting his athletic eligibility.

Harris’ and Santa Ana’s loss was not the Cavemen’s gain.

In the midst of a 24-game unbeaten streak, the Saints defeated San Diego, 6-0, and advanced to the Southern Section championship  before losing to Inglewood, 14-0.

SAY WHAT?

San Diego’s starting 11 players averaged only 151 pounds, making for its lightest team in years.

“We won’t get to first base unless we block,” Adams said, frowning but unaware that he was mixing his metaphors.

WHO’S IN? WHO’S OUT?

San Diego was out of the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, denied by some tough Coast League rivals.

Hoover won the four-team City Prep League and coach John Perry and principal Floyd Johnson petitioned the CIF for inclusion in the major division playoffs.

Hoover was granted the step up, but Coronado, undefeated and champion of the Southern Prep League, was denied a similar request.  The Islanders then prepared for a playoff against Wildomar Elsinore.

CARDINALS FLY

Hoover surprised, winning its first-ever playoff, 7-6,  at Los Angeles Loyola, which had won its league with a 7-0 record.

Hoover coach John Perry “laughed” when he learned that Loyola employed an unheard of four-man defensive line, as most teams deployed six linemen.

Perry said the way to defeat the 4-man line, which did not become popular until the 1950s in the NFL, was with straight ahead, power running.

The Cardinals didn’t win with offense.

Hoover’s Jack Beal launched a punt that traveled 70 yards to Loyola’s two-yard line. Possession was akin to holding a hot potato.  Loyola immediately punted back on first down.

Beal received the punt on Loyola’s 30-yard line and raced to Hoover’s lone touchdown and kicked the winning point after.

The Cardinals, who returned 18 lettermen from the 1931 City League-championship season, prepared to take on the winner of Brea-Olinda-Anaheim in the quarterfinals.

Not so fast.

CIF BOSS STEPS IN

CIF commissioner Seth Van Patten, after returning from an Amateur Athletic Union meeting in New York, apparently did not like the pairing.

Van Patten assigned the Cardinals to a game at City Stadium  against Santa Ana.

Santa Ana had beaten Hoover, 13-0, earlier in the season. The Saints made their third trip South and, after a sluggish first half, scored 26 points after intermission and won, 33-0.

The Elsinore game did not materialize for Coronado, which then awaited the champion of the Imperial Valley League.

George Herrick of the Evening Tribune a few days later wrote that Coronado was “unable to get a booking from the CIF or schedule a practice game.”  The Islanders turned in their gear, secure with a 5-0-1 record.

ESCONDIDO BACKS IN

Escondido, which tied Coronado, 6-6, in the regular season and was runner-up to the Islanders in league play, dropped a 7-6 decision to Orange in its final game.

Season over? Not quite.

Cougars principal Martin Perry announced that coach Harry Wexler’s squad would go to Brawley to play the Imperial Valley League champion for the Southern Section Southern Group title for small schools.

The Cougars would be appearing in their second finals in the last three seasons, having lost to El Centro Central, 20-6, in 1930.

Brawley won, 27-13, and created an unhappy end for Cougars halfback Ed Goddard, who completed an outstanding, four-season career.

Goddard earned an astounding 14 letters, four each in football, baseball, and track and field, and two in basketball.  A fast, breakaway runner, Goddard was equally renowned as a punter, adept at “coffin corner” kicks and many which were said to travel from 50-80 yards.

Goddard  continued on to Washington State, where he won all-America honors and was the second selection in the first round by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1937 NFL draft.

CAN YOU HEAR US?

Football was making progress regarding, to use a modern expression, “in-stadium entertainment.”

The San Diego Union and Evening Tribune again announced that they would sponsor a public address system at City Stadium for San Diego High and San Diego State games.

Local personality Hal Brucker would give the fans a play-by-play report on downs, distances, penalties, etc. Former Hilltop gridder Ed Ruffa was behind the mike when a P.A. was believed to have been installed for the first time in 1931.

Oceanside also employed a public address for its big Southern League game against Grossmont.

HONORS

San Diego quarterback Morris (Mushy) Pollock, all of 132 pounds, was named to the first all-Southern California team. Pollock was the only local player on the four squads.

Six writers, representing teams in their newspapers’ respective circulation districts, voted for Pollock and lineman Walt Beerle for the first all-Coast squad. Ed Knapp and Don Collison were on the second team.

WHAT GOES AROUND…

Lawrence Carr replaced Clair Seeley at La Jolla and Seeley moved to Point Loma to teach in the classroom and assist head coach Lawrence Purdy.

Purdy returned from a one-year hiatus at Point Loma, succeeding Algy Lambert, who took over for Purdy in 1931.  Lambert  moved to Pacific Beach Junior High and eventually coached Kearny in 1945.

Yuma, Arizona, which dropped a 25-7 decision to Hoover under a heavy nighttime fog at Navy Field, was coached by former University of Arizona athlete Marvin Clark, who became coach at La Jolla in 1937 and later the principal.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

The CIF added the football throw to the state track meet and discussed recognition of horse shoes as an interscholastic sport.

The CIF also made starting blocks mandatory in track and held the first cross-country championship.  Thigh guard pads were required in football and a pay ceiling of $10 was established for game officials.

Commissioner Seth Van Patten’s office was embroiled in its first legal challenge when Covina High sued over an issue of playoff receipts.

San Diegans had no sympathy for Covina, which cheated with the use of ineligible players in its 1925 title win over the Hilltoppers.

“GASOLINE BUGGIES” TO RACE

Artist’s concept (below) is of an auto racetrack that was to be built fronting Barnett

Avenue and the “Causeway” and would be across the street from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and the former Ryan Airport.

The 5/8th mile dirt course would be similar to the Ascot course in  the Los Angeles area, said the local promoter.

BLAMES DEPRESSION

Harvey Fall, 70, of San Diego hurled a crude bomb over a transom into the offices of a stock brokerage located on  Third Avenue at Plaza Street about 5 a.m.

The disgruntled investor told Police Captain Harry Kelly that “I wish I could have done this on Wall Street.”

No one was hurt but the explosion rocked the downtown area and caused about $10,000 damage to the building.

Fall said the fuse had been activated when he held the explosive. “It I had held it a minute longer I would have been killed,” he said.

WHERE’S THE OFFENSE?

Southern League schools played a round-robin schedule of 10 games.  Six concluded with scores of 7-0 or less and another was 9-0.

Mountain Empire’s games did not count in the standings, as the Redskins played only when one of the other four had a bye.

WRITER FEELS EXCITEMENT

The lead paragraph in The San Diego Union following the season’s opening game:

“In one of the most spectacular climaxes ever witnessed in a high school football game in San Diego County, Oceanside defeated Garden Grove of Orange County on the Pirates’  field yesterday, 15-12….”

The score actually was 13-12, but no less exciting.

Thompson of Oceanside intercepted an Argonauts pass on his 16-yard line with 1:40 remaining in the game and Thompson’s squad trailing, 12-6.

“Following a series of off-tackle smashes and with less than five seconds to play, Stevenson fought his way over right tackle for a touchdown to tie the score,” the Union report continued.

“Thompson, fullback, then proceeded to put the game on ice by smashing over right tackle for the extra point.”

The game actually turned after a third quarter touchdown put Garden Grove ahead, 12-6.  The Argonauts converted but the point was canceled by an offside penalty.

HAND-ME-DOWNS

Writer George Herrick wrote that the Santa Ana-San Diego game “has all the earmarks of a pocket-sized Notre Dame-Southern California battle”.

Santa Ana used the Knute Rockne Notre Dame Box system and the Hilltoppers employed the “mystery” shift of Howard Jones’s Trojans.

LOSE BATTLE OF BOOKS

Approximately 75 per cent of San Diego State’s freshmen team was declared ineligible, costing a game San Diego High had scheduled against the Frosh.

The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rule stated that “ineligible men are not to be used in any games, whether they are conference or not.”

Aztec coach Morris Gross then scheduled a scrimmage with his remaining players against Hobbs Adams’ Cavemen.

TRUE GRID

Sweetwater officials made a media request often repeated: “Call us Red Devils, not Sweeties”…student body president Dean Gardner had announced the previous December that the school officially was adopting Red Devils,  but newspaper habits were hard to break…future politicians Lionel Van Deerlin (U.S. Congress) and Ivor DeKirby (State Assembly) were on the rosters of Oceanside and San Diego, respectively……San Diego’s 30-6 win at Phoenix before more than 4,000 persons was the Coyotes’ worst loss in a decade…coach Hobbs Adams took the Cavemen to Arizona by bus and had them work out behind locked gates in the evening…Adams wanted his team to get used to lights…an otherwise uneventful San Diego season ended when the Cavemen were stopped inside the one-yard line as the game ended at Long Beach with Poly a 7-6 winner…a handful of Grossmont athletes defeated Mountain Empire, 26-0, and then those Foothillers who didn’t get into the game, topped Hoover’s Reserves, 20-0, in the nightcap of the afternoon doubleheader…a intersectional match between Brawley and St. Augustine was canceled because of a “misunderstanding of schedules”…Escondido’s Ed Goddard raced 105 yards with a Sweetwater interception to highlight a 28-13 victory….

Wait till next year seems appropriate in San Diego Section basketball, according to the Cal-Hi Sports newsletter.

The Stockton-based publication is suggesting that St. Augustine could be a Top 20 team in the 2015-16 season.

That would be an accomplishment, since no San Diego squad finished in Cal-Hi Sports’ Top 20 this season.

St. Augustine was 23rd, Torrey Pines 24th, and Foothills Christian 26th in the online publication’s final top 40.

La Jolla Country Day was 15th in the girls’ ratings, Mission Hills 30th.

“”Pencil in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division champs (St. Augustine’s Saints) as a State Top 20 team next season, with five returning starters, including freshman standout Taeshon Taylor,” wrote Cal-Hi honcho Mark Tennis.

“The game that boosts the (Torrey Pines) Falcons up for the final rankings was their 54-49 win over No. 25 Long Beach Poly in one of the bigger upsets in the SoCal regionals,” said Tennis.

St. Augustine and Torrey Pines had not been ranked in prior Cal-Hi ratings.  Foothills Christian jumped from 35th after a one-point loss to Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda (No. 5) in the regionals.

La Jolla Country Day’s girls achieved a lofty position with the poorest record (18-11) of any Boys’ or Girls’ Top 20 club.

“Anyone who saw the Torreys in person (on television or at the University of California’s Haas Arena) could see this is a team of the future that arrived in the state playoffs,” said Tennis.

“Because of injuries to several girls, including promising sophomore Alaysia Styles, 2012 coach of the year Terri Bamford had to retool the team,” Tennis noted.  “LJCD definitely will be the top preseason team to beat from the San Diego Section.”

 

 

Oakland Raiders managing general partner Al Davis spoke in 2006 about Art Powell, whom Davis signed out of the Canadian Football League years before.

“I wish I could take you back to 1963,” said Davis, “because I had one of the greatest receivers who have ever played this game.  His first year for me, he carried us.”

Powell caught 73 passes and scored 16 touchdowns as the Raiders, under first-year coach Davis, improved their record from 2-12 to 10-4.

Powell played one season in Canada and 10 seasons in the AFL and NFL and was a member of the all-American Football League team for the decade of the league’s existence, 1960-69.

Powell recently passed away at age 78 in Aliso Viejo in Orange County, where he and his family had resided many years.

A 6-foot, 3-inch, 210-pound receiver as a professional, Powell was the third in arguably the most gifted family of athletes in San Diego history.

His older brother Charlie earned an unequaled 12 varsity letters at San Diego High.  Ellsworth Powell was a standout basketball player at San Diego, and younger brother Jerry was the San Diego Section football player of the year at Lincoln in 1967.

Art Powell caught 479 passes in his NFL-AFL career.  His 81 touchdowns represented one touchdown for every 5.9 catches.

Powell was all-Southern California in 1954 at San Diego and was the City League player of the year in basketball in 1954-55.

A proud and principled man, Powell stood up when others sat.

Powell was one of the first to balk when black players were not allowed to stay in white hotels with the rest of their teammates in the days when pro athletes experienced segregation and discrimination.

Powell was on the verge of quitting at San Diego High in 1954, upset at head coach Duane Maley, who had elevated Powell from the junior varsity in 1953 but then played Powell sparingly.

It was Powell’s teammate; quarterback Pete Gumina, who prevailed on the youngster to stick it out.  Powell responded with an outstanding season.

As a sportswriter for the San Diego Evening Tribune, I interviewed Powell after the Raiders had beaten the Chargers, 34-33, in Balboa Stadium in 1963.

When I asked Powell who had been the most significant person in his athletic development, I expected him to identify Maley or basketball coach Merrill Douglas.

But Powell pointed to Augie Escamilla, a coach at the Boys’ Club on Marcy Avenue, not far from the youngster’s home in Logan Heights.

Art had gotten his inspiration from the energetic and encouraging Escamilla, who coached all of the Boys’ Club teams and all of the great athletes who would graduate from those playing fields known as the 40 acres.

JIMMY GUNN, LINCOLN AND USC’S ‘WILD BUNCH’

James (Jimmy) Gunn, a star on Lincoln’s San Diego Section championship team and a member of 3 USC Rose Bowl teams and the “Wild Bunch” defensive line, was 66 when he passed in Los Angeles this month.

Lincoln posted a 10-1 record and defeated Point Loma, 21-14, for the Division 1-A title in 1965.

The 200-pound Gunn also was talked into going out for track in his senior season by coach Bobby Smith, became a 50-second quartermiler, and ran on some of Lincoln’s fast sprint relay squads.

As a starting defensive end and all-America in 1969, Gunn starred on a USC unit that was named after the title of a popular shoot-‘em-up movie of the day, “The Wild Bunch”.

Gunn was selected in the 12th round of the 1970 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears and played seven seasons in the NFL.

The Star Spangled Banner became our national anthem, Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion, the Empire State Building rose in Manhattan, the small community of Las Vegas voted to legalize gambling.

And 8 million Americans, at least 16 per cent of the work force, were on the street, out of work, and soon to be joined by millions of others.

That’s the way it was in September, 1931.

Football in San Diego survived but was not untouched by the deepening Great Depression.

San Diego High was preparing for the regular-season finale against Long Beach Poly, when coach Hobbs Adams was told to extend the season and have his gridders help in “the nationwide call to charity.”

City Schools superintendent Walter Hepner announced at a press conference that the Cavemen would play a postseason game against the Riverside Sherman Indian Institute.

There were approximately 30,000 elementary, junior, and senior high students in the city.  Many of their parents were affected by the mounting despair of a failing economy and vanishing jobs.

Proceeds from the game would be apportioned to the Parent-Teachers’ Association for student nutrition support and to the City Schools’ Student Aid department, said Hepner.

The superintendent pointed out that students in elementary school were being found to be undernourished as their parents struggled to make ends meet and put food on the table.

Student Aid hopefully would help older boys and girls remain in school. Many were being forced to go out in search of work.

Also attending the event were Bud Kearns, superintendent of city playgrounds who would be the game manager, and Adams and his boss, John Aseltine, San Diego High principal.

About 2,500 persons (Kearns was quoted as predicting a turnout of 8,000) attended the Cavemen’s 24-0 victory over the Sherman Institute.

City Schools’ bands and ROTC units provided halftime entertainment and more than $1,200 was raised, a small but useful sum in a period of growing desperation and unemployment.

ADAMS’ SHORT FUSE

Hobbs Adams hoped he had found a “new Cotton Warburton” in Morris (Mushy) Pollock, a diminutive junior halfback who weighed 132 pounds and made the all-Southern California second team.

Pollock, who resided in Coronado but had come to the Hilltoppers from Memorial Junior High, lived up to expectations but Adams, impatient if not impetuous, often was on the warpath.

The coach benched 3 regulars after a 32-13 victory over San Bernardino and jerked three more regulars following a 25-7 win over Redondo Beach Redondo Union.

Headline  in The San Diego Sun:  “Adams Declares Hillmen Asleep on Feet”.

The coach was especially peevish when the Cavemen dropped an 18-14 Coast League decision at Alhambra on Armistice Day.  San Diego led, 14-0, at the end of three quarters.

Adams never was totally comfortable with his 7-2-1 team, but the season was a success after the Hillers had laid the wood to Long Beach Poly, 26-0.

ISLANDERS MAKE AMOS FAMOUS

Amos Schaefer’s Coronado Islanders tied with Grossmont and Escondido for the Southern League championship and were the league’s nominee for the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

The teams had tied for first in 1930 and Coronado was chosen after a meeting of coaches Schaefer, Harry Wexler of Escondido, and Jack Mashin of Grossmont.

Escondido principal Martin Perry made the announcement at a 1931-season-ending meeting of the San Diego County Football Officials’ Association.

Perry said the decision came after a three-way telephone conference involving Perry, Coronado principal J. Leslie Cutler, and Grossmont honcho Carl Birdsall.

Perry declined to address the question of whether there was a vote, but it was apparent the schools would ignore, for the second year in a row, the Southern Section rule that league championship ties require playoffs.

“There will be no playoff to determine the Southern League’s representative,” said Perry.

The Islanders stopped Hoover, 18-9, in a first-round game at City Stadium, but were shut out at El Centro Central, 14-0, the next week.

Coronado’s chances of victory in the Imperial Valley were doomed when star quarterback Jimmy Blaisdell was announced out of the game minutes before kickoff. Press reports did not give a reason, but Blaisdell had played hurt in several games.

COUGARS’ RAZZLE-DAZZLE

Escondido hid end Red Broerman on the sideline before Ed Goddard completed a long pass to set up a touchdown and Goddard scored on a hidden ball play as the Cougars defeated visiting Norwalk Excelsior, 27-13.

Goddard was the County’s leading scorer with 94 points (Blaisdell was runner-up with 79) and  made the all-Southern California third team.

Escondido finished the season with a 10-1 record, best in school history.  The 10 victories would be equaled by Cougars teams in 1969, 1978, and 2008.

NEW KID (AGAIN) ON BLOCK  

Mountain Empire High in Campo, which opened in 1925, took a second, hesitant  attempt at football.

The Emperors, as they were known, did not find the game to their liking, as was the case six years before in an 0-5 inaugural campaign.

Coronado pulled its regulars with five minutes left in the first quarter and still handed principal-coach James Martin’s team a 74-0 loss.

The Emperors played their schedule on the road, forfeited twice, and finished with a 0-5 record in the Southern Prep League. A game with the Oceanside varsity was not played.  Instead, the Emperors dropped a 47-6 decision to a team representing the Oceanside varsity, the Oceanside B’s.

Future football at Mountain Empire would be on a Class B or junior varsity level.

IT’S SANTA ANA’S TIME

After San Diego struggled in a 13-2 victory over Pasadena, Eddie West, writer for the Santa Ana Register, challenged the hometown Saints.

“Coach Oliver’s team has the best chance since 1927 of waxing the Hilltoppers as Santa Ana has so longed yearned to wax ’em,” wrote West.

“The Saints now know they are meeting no ‘wonder team,’” said West, “and know, too, they have a better-than-even chance of winning—if they don’t choke up as other Santa Ana teams have against San Diego.”

Gerald (Tex) Oliver, who coached Hilltoppers B teams in the mid-‘twenties, guided the Saints to a 14-2 victory, their first over San Diego since 1921.

GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS

The most signifcant application of the old saying took place  for the Hilltoppers when Mushy Pollock punted from his end zone.

Pollock raced up the field in coverage and recovered his punt after the San Ana return man fumbled.  The Hilltoppers immediately fumbled the ball back to the Saints.

Santa Ana went to defeat Covina, 34-0, for the Southern Section title and interrupted a Coast League run in which San Diego or Long Beach Poly usually finished on top.

Poly had won five championships and San Diego two since the league, in its present alignment, was formed in 1923.

TRANSFERS KEY

After becoming one of the top players in the Imperial Valley at El Centro Central in 1930, Dave Wynne moved to San Diego and was an offensive standout first at quarterback, then at halfback, when Hobbs Adams shifted junior Mushy Pollock to quarterback.

Wynn scored 8 touchdowns and drop-kicked 12 point after touchdowns.  He was the third leading scorer in the County with 60 points.

Quarterback George Albin rushed for six touchdowns as Hoover qualified for the playoffs in  its second season, a year after Albin played at St. Augustine.

HILLTOPPERS BEAT POLY

The all-time series record now  favored Long Beach Poly, 13-6-1 after San Diego defeated the Jackrabbits, 26-0, and for the second year in row Poly did not gain a first down rushing.

The Hilltoppers have gained 30 first downs to Long Beach’s 3 in the last two seasons, but have managed only a split of the games.  They lost to Poly, 14-8, in 1930.

SIGNS OF THE TIME

Federal “dry” officers raided a ranch two miles north of Escondido and arrested Tony Norris, 40, for the second time in two months for violating the national prohibition act.

Norris was in County jail, charged with being the “maintainer” of 5,000 gallons of wine and brandy.

WILD TOSSES

Mary Elizabeth Shourds sued for divorce from Richard Shourds.

Mrs. Shourds told a San Diego Superior Court magistrate that her husband threw hair brushes at her during spousal tiffs.

RACIST TO SPEAK

From The San Diego Union Oct. 20, 1931:

“As elected guardians of a public-owned auditorium, members of the board of education last night spent 45 disturbed minutes last night.

The group discussed ethics, morals, policies of the board and religions before they decided to not cancel a contract which the San Diego citizens’ committee has made for the Russ auditorium, where in two weeks former Senator James T. Heflin of Alabama will speak.”

A redneck, white supremacist, Heflin was known as “Cotton Tom.”

BEACH TRAGEDY

Oceanside High football player Henry Langford, 17,  was killed when the car in which he was riding overturned on the beach in the North County community.

Elwood Phillips, the driver, was uninjured.  The accident occurred when the front wheels of the vehicle locked in the sand.

SOUTHWEST BRAGGING RIGHTS

Phoenix Union, arrived a day early on the Arizona and California Railway for its intersectional tussle with San Diego.

Billboarded as the “Southwestern Champions of 1930” after beating teams from California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, the Coyotes and Hilltoppers were allowed to play the only intersectional game of the season in Southern California.

In time the Southern Section would pass a rule prohibiting inter-state games but okayed this year’s contest because it was the second in a series of home-and-home games.

Phoenix defeated San Diego, 22-20, in 1930 in the Arizona city.

The Hilltoppers had 16 first downs to 1 and defeated the Coyotes, 9-6, after trailing, 6-0, at the half.

TRUE GRID

Hoover’s Burnell Paddock kicked a 40-yard field goal in an 18-9, playoff loss to Coronado…Paddock”s placement from the Islanders’ 30-yard line was believed to be the second longest in County history behind a 44-yard dropkick field goal by San Diego’s Bill Garber in a 1916 playoff versus Ontario Chaffey…City League teams were limited by rule to a total of seven regular-season games, including  three league games…Coronado’s opening game victory over Hoover was not all because of Jimmy Blaisdell, who scored both touchdowns in the 12-0 win…Kent Bush’s 45-yard punting average kept the favored Cardinals backing up…businesses and stores closed for the afternoon when Escondido and Oceanside met in their annual North County battle at Oceanside…San Diego’s varsity players were invited to the Spreckels theater to see “The Spirit of Notre Dame” motion picture, which was a tribute to the late coach, Knute Rockne, killed in a plane crash in Kansas earlier in the year…Hobbs Adams took 20 Hilltoppers to the USC-Stanford game on Saturday, returned home, and then traveled to Alhambra for a Tuesday Armistice Day game…John Perry of Hoover chartered a bus for his Hoover team’s trip to Yuma, Arizona, but some players traveled in private cars…after defeating the Criminals, 6-0, the Cardinals’ were guests at a postgame dance and returned on Sunday to San Diego…El Monte defeated Oceanside, 34-0, for the Southern California Southern Group minor Class B title…Russ Saunders, a star on San Diego’s 1924-25 teams and an all-America at USC, played for the champion Green Bay Packers this season and was the second San Diego athlete in the NFL…Brick Muller played and coached for the Los Angeles Buccaneers in 1925-26, but the Buccaneers were based in Chicago, did not play a game in Los Angeles, and all of their contests were on the road….